


Swing Lure

by toli-a (togina)



Category: Justified
Genre: 1970s, 1980s, Alternate Universe - Birds, Alternate Universe - Canon, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2019-08-09
Packaged: 2020-08-13 20:13:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20180059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/togina/pseuds/toli-a
Summary: The preacher talks about flocks, which seems like easy fodder for a room full of birds. But Raylan’s the only falcon in town, and he ain’t quite certain how he fits into a congregation full of warblers.





	Swing Lure

**Author's Note:**

> For some reason I decided to make everyone birds. I have no explanations, other than thinking, "Here's something I'd never write," and here it is.

Boyd turns into an owl. Raylan says this is because Boyd loves the sound of his own voice and thinks he’s smarter and cannier and wiser than anyone else in the room. Boyd says he is cleverer than anyone else in the room, feathers or no. Raylan’s a peregrine falcon, and when he runs Boyd says he should have known from the name, should have known Raylan was always the first and the fastest off of the treetops, out of the room.

The preacher talks about flocks, which seems like easy fodder for a room full of birds. But Raylan’s the only falcon in town, and he ain’t quite certain how he fits into a congregation full of warblers. (His daddy ain’t no warbler, that’s for sure. Arlo’s been a blue jay since the unfortunate day he was born, and Raylan can’t be sure if it’s the jay that makes his daddy an asshole, or if being a miserable son of a bitch feathered and took flight and turned Arlo Givens into a jay.)

Bo’s sparrow is easy to underestimate, but Raylan’s perched in enough trees as a boy and an eyas to know that sparrows will kill whatever bird they deem needs killing, and will settle anywhere they deem advantageous, no matter if that territory’s already been claimed. It don’t matter that Boyd’s owl and his little brother’s black vulture could crush Bo in their talons; Bo never fails to peck both his sons back into line.

Raylan’s mama pushes him through the door and out of the nest and into the air, takes wing and watches him fall. (Watches him fall down the stairs before he learns to fly, breaks his arm to the sound of his daddy’s cackle and his mama’s silence where she alights on the nearest chair. Warblers will kill their own young, if the chicks can’t prove their worth.)

Raylan doesn’t change for weeks, after, not til Boyd pokes and prods and pecks and waits for Raylan at the windowsill. It’s Boyd, who finally teaches a falcon with a bum wing how to fly. It’s Boyd’s fault that Raylan learns to love the feeling of air rushing underneath his wings, the twist and dive and glide, the freedom of soaring untethered through the air. (It’s Boyd’s fault, fifteen years later, that Raylan spreads his wings and runs.)


End file.
